Viper
by Artful Doodler
Summary: A Digimon story.


Matt had been stumbling around the forest for longer than he cared to remember. His dirty blonde hair was sweeping in front of his eyes after the constant rainfall. It was odd. It had rarely rained anywhere else in the Digiworld since he had entered after Venomiotismon's defeat. He couldn't remember the last time, before now, that teardrops had fallen from the clouds. Maybe they fell now because he wanted it to rain. He didn't want to cry himself.

Garurumon treaded at his heals, the little beast, stripped with tiger-like slashes across his regularly white fur, keeping his head ducked in dismay. Matt had enjoyed his time alone much more than his digimon-pal had. Garurumon thrived much more on the support of the many than Matt did. Even though the two were a powerful team… out of the several beasts they had met on the way, none had come close to defeating them...sometimes even Matt got a little lonely.

He paused and he sat, looking up at the sky that was a dark black. He stared at the ground, laden with plants very exotic from the ones back home. He didn't like to think about home. Home made him think about TK, his brother, and TK made him think about the others, and the others just reminded him that he hadn't yet changed.

He rested his chin in his hands. "I'm beginning to think this is all a waste, Garurumon."

Gararumon frowned in concern. "Don't say that Matt. It's been hard." He leaned back, rested his head on his arms. "We've been alone for god knows how long and I'm still the same. The same old..."

"Jerk you've always been. I know, I've heard it a million times, Matt. But you're wrong. You have changed out here. I just think you needed to be alone for a while," he remarked lightly.

Matt brushed the hair out of his eyes. He couldn't stop thinking about the others. Back in the beginning, everything was simple. He and Tai were best friends, TK needed him, and the others were his friends. God. But after a while, Tai became bossy. And when Tai became bossy, Matt became rueful. Matt had always been a rebel back in school. He got good marks, but always tried to do things his way. That hadn't changed here. When things didn't go his way...as they rarely did, with Tai in charge, he thought with a frown...he got mean and cold. Pushy, really. He used to be the mature one. Matt was always a lot more mature than the others. Maybe because throughout his life he had to grow up fast. He had played his role. The mature one who looked after people.

That had changed when people began to grow up. They all began to change fore the better, and Matt seemed to just become worse. He knew what he needed to be more like. He needed to be more passive, to understand others more. To take there ideas and not always be such a spoiled brat. But that was hard. He had become mean. He could never forget the little doll Puppetmon had made of him back when there were no more than, well, Puppets. TK had looked joyful, Joe a little paranoid, Mimi a bit vain...each had reflected on the person's personality. And Matt's? Matt was frowning. Looking angry and mean. Was that how he was? That was why he had left. To try and change that.  
He wondered if they missed him. "We're running low on food, Garurumon. The only water we have is from the rain and..." tears welled up a bit in his eyes, "I can't get this darn crest to glow!!"

Garurumon smiled. "I don't NEED to Digivolve, Matt. I'm okay at this level."  
Matt buried his face in his hands again. "Its not THAT, really, it's just...my crest is the crest of friendship, doesn't that figure? But it can't glow. Does that mean I have no friendship?"

Garurumon smiled at him. "There's me."

Matt bit his lower lip. "Yeah..." But all he could think about was TK. Suddenly there was singing. Music, a beautiful voice echoed through the trees. Matt sat up . "Are there any singing Digimon that you know of?" Garurumon raised an eyebrow. "Screechmon sings, be he's not good at all. And I doubt that this is a Digimon either, we're all digital so we don't sing very well anyway."

Accompanied by the voice...that song, it sounded so familiar...was a flicker of light bursting through the trees. A fire? Here? Maybe there was shelter. Matt just looked at Garurumon for an opinion, but he shrugged. "I go where you go Matt. Just keep in mind, it may be a trap." "Shelter...food...we have to try!"

Matt stood up. He was still stiff from all that walking. He had always been physically fit, but this was stretching it. Garurumon looked a lot tougher than before. That calm, cool looking in his eyes had altered. Now it was dangerous, rough. It was the roughness that came from fighting alone. They brushed through the trees. He thought maybe it was Sora or Mimi. The voice sounded feminine, but he had heard Mimi sing, and this didn't match her pitches, and Sora didn't seem like the singing type. He looked down at Garurumon, the fire only a distant blaze separated by a grouping of thin trees. The only support the Digimon gave was a quick, nervous nod. He stepped through, inhaling.

There, by a fire covered by a leaf made tarp strung by yellow rope was a girl. A girl he had never seen before. Unlike the human-like Digimon that sometimes happened at their full-grown state, this girl had no weird marks about her other than a V-shaped scar underneath her left eye. She had regular, chocolate-brown hair that levelled down to her shoulder blades, bright green eyes that were shaped like his, and a thin, warrior like stature. She wore human clothes...a red tank top, one black glove, an arm-band of gold shaped like a snake, and long, bell-bottom jeans. She looked, well, like she came from the Real World.

She glanced up and smiled. "I've been expecting you." He didn't know what shocked him more...the fact that she was expecting him or the fact that a Digimon looked up and smiled as well.

Tai and TK screamed through the forest. "Matt! Matt!!"

They knew that in order to beat the last Dark Master, they needed to last member of their eight-some to get the show on the road. Without him, all was ended. TK frowned, looking concerned, his youngish face pale with fright.

"Tai?"

"Yes, TK?"

TK's lower lip trembled slightly. "Matt's always looked after me, since I was a kid, and he did a good job. But then I stopped needing him anymore and yelled at him to leave me alone. Do you think that's why he went away?" Tai frowned slightly. His memories also kicked in. He could remember Matt so well, his messy blond hair and sharp eyes. A rebellious kid, that one was. But they had been close. One day, according to Joe, he just left, after a bad episode. True, it was right after TK had, not for the first time, brushed off Matt's selfless efforts to care for his young brother. But it was something else.

"I don't think so, TK. I think Matt just needed to be alone and... needed to mature some more."

TK smiled lightly. "Matt's always been a lot more adult than me and you, Tai."

Tai almost blushed. "For a while he wasn't. But that's kinda his job. To be the grown up, huh?"

Sora, Kari and Izzy had gone off, and so had Joe and Mimi. Joe and Mimi had gotten very close since the Digiworld, which was odd considering they're highly conflicting personalities. Joe was so...stiff and stern and Mimi was almost an airhead at times and vain. Maybe that was what the Digiworld did. Brought you close to people you needed to be close to.

It was Kari and TK, Mimi and Joe, Tai and Sora...Izzy and....well, Izzy and Matt didn't really fit. It was more like Izzy and his computer and Matt and himself. Maybe that's why Matt was all alone. He didn't have anything. Or maybe Matt needed to learn to not want to be alone.

TK whispered softly, "I miss him."

Tai sighed deeply, the echoing of the forest egging him on more than ever. "I think we all do."

"Knuxmon is his name. He's one of the most powerful. His evolved states are Azuremon, Dracomon, and Kkraimon, which is really rare but mega-powerful. We've been long-time friends." Then she laughed. Matt looked down at Knuxmon. It really did look powerful. It was like a dragon and a snake with a devilish hint to those eyes of his. That made him shivers. He had a spike on the end of his tale, deep scales, and he swore that you could see the outline of his bones through his semi-transparent fins. He shivered. He didn't want to know what it was like in a higher form.

"This is Garurumon," he said, hesitantly.

Her name was Viper. His name was Matt. That much they had exchanged. Otherwise, he knew nothing. She rested her chin in her hand, the pot of food that had been cooking laying off of the fire now. "What are you doing wandering the forests by yourself? I was wondering when we'd run into each other, really."

"That's what I"D like to know," he said, almost harshly, "How do you know me? Why were you expecting me?"

Viper grinned. "Don't worry, I don't work for Piedmon. I wouldn't help that overgrown clown if you paid me. But you know that old man who's been e-mailing you and helping you guys out? To you, he's a helper. To me, he's Dad."

"Dad? But he's so...old!"

Viper yawned lightly and nodded. "Time goes back quickly here than it does up there. Dad and I used to live up there, in the Real-World in the sky. One day we both came down here, took a look see. I'm not a Digidestined, you see, just a Digi-helper I guess." She laughed a little, a cute little giggle. "Anyway, he sent me back to the Real-World for school..." she rolled her eyes a bit, "Like THAT would help save the world here. But here, he aged quicker. So he built that hut, you know. You don't age there. That's why he's so much older than I am. More like a grandfather than a father, you'd think."

Matt tried to bite into that. All this time, and he'd never told them he had a daughter? Well it figured. He always thought the guy was a bit mad and he only talked to them about Digimon matters. Why would he tell them about a daughter, anyway? The two looked nothing alike. Why, Viper looked more like...

Well, more like Matt. She had Matt's eyes...LadyDevimons lips...Angimon' s hair but in brown... Lilimon's petite figure...Mimi's nose...she was like a mix of everything there, in human-like form. "Do you have a mom?"

She laughed. "Dead, long ago. And your parents?" "Divorced," he said quickly. "I have a brother, his name is TK." His voice faltered a little, but he forced to gain it back. "We kinda lost each other. I needed to be by myself, to find out who I was...to gain..."

"Friendship?"

"Yeah."

Viper stood and smiled, tossing back her hair almost arrogantly. "That's why I'm here, Matt. That's the reason that my dad sent me out to find you. See, you can't win without being risen to your potential. Don't you see? Each of the crests isn't what you ARE, it's what you have to BECOME. Do you think Sora was always loving? No. Or Joe always reliable? No! And this is why I'm here."

Matt frowned in confusion. "To do... what?"

"To teach you friendship."

Matt felt spiteful, his lower lip curling in a bit of distaste. "I have Garurumon," he spoke a bit harshly.

At first, he worried that she'd be hurt, but she merely sighed. "There's your first problem. Never willing to take help." She grinned lightly. "Well, Matt, better get used to me. I'm Viper. Your friend." She stuck out her hand.

Should he shake it? He stared at it, gloved in black. That V-shaped scar, the glove...what did he trust her for some reason? It could be a trick. Very easily so, but there was something in those eyes. Maybe it was because they were shaped like his, only a different, green colour. But wearily, with a smile tugging at his cheeks, he reached out and shook it. "Sure. Why not."

Piedmon glanced down at the too angrily from his telescope. What did they think they were doing, become friends and all? That would only ruin his plans! Viper and Matt couldn't become friends! No! If Matt learned friendship, that would destroy everything. Everyone else had already changed, and Matt was his last. With Matt at his full potential... especially considering Matt had the strongest Digimon...he would be in big trouble.

He glanced over his shoulder at his faithful servants. The were all playing around with computers, doing things he couldn't comprehend. He pursed his wine-red lips lightly, feeling the weight of the upcoming battles pressuring his shoulders. "Get me one of my best servants."

Slowly, as if called, a dangerous looking creature appeared before him. Parselmon, a snake like beast with dangerous fire and ice capabilities. He was a hybrid, a mix of the two other flying snake-beasts that Machinemon had sent out a while back. Parselmon smiled devilishly. "You wanted me, Lord?" Piedmon pointed down at his telescope. "Take a look."

"Two kids, sir?"

"Not just any too kids. The last pieces, Matt and that horrid girl. What do you make of it, Parselmon?" Piedmon spoke coolly. Parselmon smiled with that metallic grin of his that was barely readable. "You want me to kill them, sir?"

Piedmon shook his head. "Seperate them. If we kill them, they'll be no chance of getting Garurumon to join our side. And that is what we want right now, is it not?"  
"Of course, Master. And the others?" Piedmon stood something he disliked because his shoulders hunched over and he looked very much like a, well, puppet. He raised his head, stared out at the night sky. Ah, how the world had been changed! His tall mount was grande, and could be seen everywhere. "Send your best. Their in groups now, two and three in each. By nightfall they will have joined up with the partner of strength. And when this happens... attack. Separate them. Maybe get them to hate each other."

"What for, sir?"

Piedmon snarled. "Are you stupid, or just dense?? Together, in those pairs and groups, they will be able to find their deepest strengths in one another and we cannot allow that to happen." He sighed and cupped his face in his hands. "They've come to close already. We must tear them apart at the seams before they are fully sewed. Do you see?"

Parselmon grinned widely, nodding and turning his back with a fully, heaving breath. He looked outside, glanced at the other evil Digimon flocking at the base. "Your work will be done by sunrise tomorrow." With that, Parselmon flew himself out the door.  
Piedmon sat, regally, staring down at his world. His Digimon world. He grinned. Things were beginning to falter, but not for long. Parselmon would get the job done and well. Now he just had to sit back and wait for it to happen.

He frowned for a minute, and took a last glance through his telescope. There was Tai and TK... calling out something in the beauty of the forest. Mimi and Joe, arguing like an old married couple... Sora, Kari and Izzy, peering over Izzy's shoulder at his laptop as Izzy typed in some mathematical way of approximating where Matt could be. He shifted lastly to Matt and Viper, sitting and eating and laughing over something. Perfectly happy and getting along.

He grinned. If he could help it, that wouldn't last long. If he could help it.


End file.
